The Indispensability of the Internet.
I believe that the Internet and the Web are transformational technologies. These technologies transform businesses, people, relationships, networks and processes.
New frontiers continue to open. IRS' e-filing system is a smash hit. Amazon.co.jp (Amazon's japan store) allows users to now take a photo of a bar code in a store and get a price check. Amazon.com continues to add new stores. Did you know that Amazon.com had a musical instruments store?
It seems like you can find anything on the Web nowadays. Want directions to a certain house in Medina, WA (anyone recognize the house owner)? Want a satellite image of the White House? Want to read Singapore's leading newspaper? Want a recipe of beef stroganoff? Want a copy of Adam Smith's "The Wealth of Nations"? Whatever you want, it seems like it is available on the Web.
One of my colleagues, Vanderbilt's Donna Hoffman, has written about how the Internet has become indispensable. She argues that the adoption rate of the Internet is several magnitudes larger than earlier communications technologies, it has had an
impressive impact on contemporary society through networked communities, changing nature of home and work life, rise of digital commerce, transformation of communication systems and it is now displacing TV as the main source of entertainment for so-called “digital kids” while creating new opportunities for communication and education. Click here if you want to read more about it.
Does the indispensability argument hold for you? At home? At work? Would you rather not have the phone or access to the Web at work?
